Colorado Family Pictures

A few weekends ago we took a (not so little) drive to Colorado to visit my family! Becca was home, too, so my mom wanted to do family pictures. We've never done formal family pictures before (unless you count going to Sears when we were really little one year), so it was pretty exciting. We just got them back a few days ago, and they are GORGEOUS! Thanks to Jessica Carney Wedding Photography for making our family look so good. Becca and I worked hard to pick the perfect colors and I think we pulled it off. We all went up to Waterton Canyon in the evening and everything was just perfect. They turned out amazing! Here are my favorites, and yes, there are a lot of them!

True Happiness is Being a Mother

When I was in high school I was not one of those girls who wanted to go to college and find a husband. That was the last thing on my mind. After a series of events, I ended up at BYU a year after graduating from high school. I still wasn't one of those girls who wanted to find a husband and immediately start a family. Even when I met Dan, I wasn't looking to get married right away. But we fell in love and I knew without a doubt (pretty early on) that he was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. We were married ten months after we met, and I thought I couldn't be happier. When Jameson was born three years later, I again thought I couldn't be happier. I am sure every mother would agree, but being a mom really is the best thing that I have ever done. When I go into Jameson's room in the morning after he wakes up and he hears my voice and smiles, when he stops crying as soon as I pick him up, when he finally laughs out loud for me after doing it for Dan for a few weeks, those are the special times that I know he loves me and that I have made the right decision in getting married and having a baby earlier than most people. Family is the most important thing in the world, and it is so special to know that we can be together forever. I am such a different person because I am a mother than I was even a year or two ago. Dan and Jameson are my world and I would do anything for them. I know I will feel the same about our future children, but those special moments when I hold Jameson close and he really looks at me and smiles are moments that I would not trade for anything in this world. There is nothing like being a mother.

Has it really been 3 months!?

Guess who is three-months-old! I can't believe our little man is growing so fast. And he had a really big month, too. He went to three new states, met his great-grandparents and uncles, went on a plane for the first time, was blessed by his daddy, and does a lot of cool new things. Here is a little update about our little man:

• He can officially hold up his head now! It's a big relief because we don't have to worry about it flopping around or anything. I think that it happened in perfect timing for his blessing since he was passed around a ton. 
• He also is crazy drooly right now. He usually is only drooly when he's happy, and sometimes he has to wear a bib because he'll soak his little onesies. 
• He also now makes an "oh" noise, and can also blow bubbles with his lips. He gets really happy when he does this.
• Just in the last few days I realized that he will grab onto toys if I put them in front of him, and then he brings them to his mouth. He's already gotten better at it since now that I know he can do it I've been having him practice a lot.
• He doesn't like tummy time a lot. He can lift his head up, but he gets frustrated after like 45 seconds of being on his tummy. So we have to do that in short bursts.
• He looooves eating his hands. If we don't play with him, he'll put his hands in his mouth and just suck and suck. It's super funny because his hands get pretty wet.
• His hair is getting pretty long, especially on top. It's just so blonde that it doesn't look like he has any hair. He does have a bald spot on the back right side of his head. Silly boy.
• He had his first laugh this month (courtesy of Dan), and now he laughs a few times every day. It's not like a bunch of giggles in a row, but when he does it's like a single laugh. It's really cute though.
• He also is really really active. If we aren't holding him he moves non-stop. Which makes taking pictures of him really hard. Almost all the pictures I take of him he has a blurry foot or arm or something. I think he's going to be an early crawler!
• He is a smiler! He is generally a really happy baby, so he smiles a lot. It's really fun spending my days with him because when he smiles it makes me smile.

Well I can't think of anything I haven't already said, so I will just do a picture dump now.

 

Here is how he looks compared to his one- and two-month old pictures:

Also, we got a new car! It's for me, so I call it my mom car. I named her Narcissa, and she's AMAZING and has a ton of fancy features (sunroof, seat-warmers, DVD player). It has three rows so we can pretty much keep it forever. Hooray!!

 

Jameson's First Trip and Baby Blessing

This weekend we took Jameson to Idaho for his baby blessing at church. It was his first trip, and he visited four different states! We had a really good time, and he did AMAZING on all four plane rides. He fell asleep on takeoff for all the flights and landing for half of them. While we were in the air he was really happy and made friends with all of the people around us. When we would land people would tell us they didn't even know there was a baby on the plane! It was a huge relief because I was super nervous the night before we left that he was going to cry the whole time and I couldn't really sleep. It turns out I had nothing to worry about!

On the plane! I had a hard time getting a picture because he was so wiggly!!

At the airport in Salt Lake City. Ready to go!

When we were in Idaho he got to meet both of his uncles, his future aunt, and both sets of his great-grandparents. Plus three great-uncles and great-aunts and a bunch of their kids (second cousins?). He was passed around like crazy and was actually pretty happy and fun with everyone.

Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Johnson

Great-Grandpa Jolley

Great-Grandma Jolley

On Sunday Dan blessed Jameson in his dad's ward. It was perfect and I pretty much cried the entire morning and during the blessing. It was such a special moment to have Dan bless him. He did amazing and I am so grateful to have a husband who holds the Priesthood. We had lots of friends and family come and it was so sweet. It melted my little heart to see how many people came just for him. He has so many people who love him already!

The family!

The Allreds

Dan's mom

Four generations of first-born Johnson boys

Bill and Morgan came to see Jameson!

While we were in Idaho we also went and walked over by the falls and got to go up to the temple. We tried to recreate a wedding picture in front of the Idaho Falls Temple since we got married there, but it didn't really work so I won't show you the original. The pictures turned out pretty cute, though!

So not only was this trip Jameson's first time out of state and on a plane, but we also stayed in a hotel last night because our flight left from Salt Lake really early. So it was Jameson's first night in a hotel!

It was such a great weekend! Thank you to everyone who came to support our little family. We love you and our perfect little boy!!

Time to Lose the Baby Weight

Disclaimer: This post is more for me to motivate myself to lose the baby weight. You really do not need to read it because it's probably going to be lame and boring for everyone but me. Hokay!

When I was born, I was blessed with an amazing metabolism and above average height. I have always been tall and skinny. In high school, I did some modeling, but when they told me I needed to lose even more weight, I quit. I wasn't super healthy, but because of my lovely metabolism, I was still skinny. I never worked out, and I even put off taking a P.E. credit until my senior year (and even then I did an online class so I wouldn't really have to work out).

Senior year

Sophomore year

When I first went to college I gained 20 pounds (hello, 24 hour mozzarella sticks in the cafeteria). I started jogging, but not for long. After I dropped out of Boston University, I lost the weight again and was returned to my skinny form. But I wasn't working out again because I still hated it and didn't really need to.

Before Dan and I got married, I did crunches every night, but about a month after we were married I stopped again. I would occasionally go to the workout place at our first apartment, and then to the BYU workout place when we lived in Provo, but nothing really regular. Again, still skinny thanks to my lovely metabolism.

A year after we were married

Then I got pregnant and everything changed. I started working out every day and I felt healthy. I managed to gain 50 pounds (I think my body was excited), and let me tell you that was definitely not all from Jameson.

This isn't even at the end of my pregnancy and you can tell I had "filled out" other than my belly.

It will be 10 weeks since Jameson was born on Wednesday, and I have lost 30 pounds. I have sort of plateaued and have been at that 30 pound-mark with 20 left to go for about a month. So I decided that it was time to get back in shape. Yes, I have been working out since I was cleared at my post-partum appointment four weeks ago, but I haven't been doing it every day and I haven't been doing it very hard (like, at all).

This leads me to the whole point of this post. My friend told me about Blogilates. If you don't know what it is, go to her website (blogilates.com) and have your mind blown. I decided that I was going to continue eating healthy like I have been doing, but also start doing the monthly calendar. Today was my first day and it took a little over an hour to do the five workout videos because Jameson woke up in the middle of them. It was so crazy! I drank a liter of water and sweat more than I have ever sweat from working out before. I am going to keep doing them until I lose the rest of the weight, or until I at least feel satisfied and proud and happy about my body again.

So of course, I had to take some before pictures. And of course, like all good before pictures, I couldn't have makeup on or look cute or anything (that's before and after picture 101). Here they are. Plus here's a cute picture of baby Jameson to finish the whole post out. Time to lose the baby weight!!

EEW

Perfect!

Two Months Old!

Time flies so fast when you have a little baby, and he's now two months old! Jameson is still the perfect baby, and I've never loved anything like I love him. He is such a smiley, happy little boy. Here are some fun things about him:

• He likes watching TV. He won't do it for very long, but he likes to sit and stare at it for a while. He has watched a few NBA playoff games.
• He is in his 0-3 month clothes and size 1 diapers! It took him a while to get big enough, but he now fits it almost all of his 0-3 month clothes, and I have already put away most of his newborn things because they won't fit anymore.
• He is SUPER vocal. He squeals, squeaks, and coos like he did a month ago, but he also makes little "ah-gee" and "aye" noises. If you play with him he'll just sit there and talk a bunch. Especially when he's really happy.
• He only wakes up 1 or 2 times to eat every night, which is wonderful. He's a good sleeper and will go back to sleep after I feed and change him pretty fast. He usually goes to bed between 8:30pm and 9pm, and he wakes up between 7:30am and 8:30am.
• I know he knows who we are now. I don't really know how to explain it well, but I know that he knows Dan and I because he is happier with us than anyone else, and he smiles at us a lot.
• He knows when we are trying to take pictures and videos of him. He will still take good pictures, but it's tricky. Videos, however, are a bit harder to do because he pretty much stops what he's doing if he knows there's a video being taken.
• He is not a fussy baby. The only time he ever really gets fussy is if he's tired and hasn't had a good nap in several hours.
• We went outside and sat in the grass for the first time. Well, a blanket on the grass. But he was good and enjoyed being outside!
• He's the best baby ever. Duh.

I took him to his two month appointment on Tuesday, and he did not like that. We found out he is now 11 lbs. and 5 oz., which is 3 lbs more than his appointment at two weeks, and he is also 23 3/4 inches long, which is 4 1/4 inches long than when he was born. He is in the 25% for weight and 80% for height. Tall and skinnny! Anyway, he had three shots on Tuesday. I had to hold his little arms down when she did them, which was so sad! He was fine when she first put the first needle in him, but once he felt the pain he started screaming. She did two in one leg and one in the other, and he was crying so hard! As soon as I picked him up, he stopped crying and just buried into my chest. He was fine and napped when we got home, then he played and was happy for a few hours, and then I think the soreness set in because he got super upset in the afternoon and I had to give him some medicine. It helped and he was fine the rest of the day and night. It was really hard seeing him hurt though. I actually teared up when he was screaming at the doctor and then before I gave him the medicine because I felt so bad! Poor little guy did not like that. Luckily he doesn't have another appointment until he is 4 months old.

He has grown so much, and I didn't really realize it until I put his two month picture next to his one month picture. It blew my mind. Here are some fun pictures of the last month with baby Jameson: